B-day party #2. Old lady turning 40!

Well, since I´m officially OLD, I felt no guilt in not throwing a big bash...
I invited a few friends to a bar and we just hung out and had a great evening...

Me and my 2 BFF´s Ola and Cecilia started out in Ola´s apartment...

Later, the rest of the gang                                                                                                                      showed  up!     (Richard & Claudia)

(Me and BFF Ola. He gave me a weekend i NYC!!!)

          

Richard, Claudia, Åsa, me, Ola & Carina...      

Jara, Åsa, me...

A random member of the Blue Man Group...?

Hot chick´s Åsa & Cecilia!

      Cecilia sees no reason to not dance with a cute guy who passes by... Go girl!! 








All in all, THANK YOU FRIENDS! I had a great evening!                                                                           

B-day party #1. Baby turning 6!!

Ellen had her b-day party.
It was carefully planned by her, from guestlist, to decorations and snacks, candy and drinks.

I did noting but pay for it *lol*

She picked flowers for the center piece...

She set the table and drew the picture for "Kiss the Princess"...

She was excited about her choice of cake, CHEESCAKE!

And she took charge of the games they played...

When all the lil´ guests left she sunk down and said softly "Mommy, this was my best birthday party EVER".

I´m six now, you know...

Yes, my "baby" is six. SIX!!!

Excuse me, but who gave her permission to grow up?? Where is my lil´ girl?
She´s so big now, and she´s forming her personality and are turning into a school girl.

As much as I´m happy she´s such a great kid, I still get so sad about the fact that time is running away...

I see her with her friends when she doens´t know I´m watching and it´s clear she´s liked by her peers, and that she has lots of friends.

I both long for her teenage years, and -naturally- fear it. What the heck is life going to be like then?

But, for now, she´s my lil´ sweet pea. Excited about her upcoming b-day party. Thrilled about pretty dresses and SHOES (she has that from me), and she, still, likes her mama.

Who knows how long that lasts?

Anyways, we´re in the midst of baking cakes and preparing for the "big day" and she very sweetly offers to help...

cleaning the bowl, that is...

Aaaaahhh.. I love my kid! I really, really do!

You get by with a little help from your friends... (and kids)

Is it a myth that kids don´t want to help clean the house?
I know I´ve told Ellen from time to time to go clean her room and she has sighed LOUDLY about having to do so.

Still, the room has been neat after a while. (yes, she needs to play with EVERY toy before putting it away, and yes, she needs to draw just one more picture and THEN she´ll get back to cleaning up. But, still)

Now, however, I hear her shouting from her room: "Mommy, you can´t come in here for a while."
And while I lay still in the sofa, too lazy to switch channels and ending up looking at cartoons even though I don´t have to, she CLEANS HER ROOM!

"You can come in here now" She says, and looking around her room I´m baffled! It´s really, really neat!

So, our apartment was a mess, and I said "You know, we really need to straighten this place up. Wanna help?"

Sure thing!

I have the cutest lil´ helper around! And you know what the best part is? We have fun doing it!!

Free ridin´...

Spring is FINALLY here! Me and kiddo dusted off my bike and are now enjoying the bikeride to and from pre-school.

It´s unbeliavable how much of a difference a little fresh air makes in the morning!

All in all this spring is so much more active than last year at this time...

We have a lot more stuff to do, and so much more fun doing it.
Moving from the house has given the both of us more time to enjoy eachother, instead of having so many little things to tend to about the house. Freedom!!!

I also very much enjoy the fact that I now take the time to work out for real!
My birthday present to my self was a new gadget... Not only does it make running more fun, it also looks damn good *lol*

I can´t think of a better gift for myself...

Enjoy spring y´all, we sure are!

Oh, yes it´s Ladies Night...

Yup, hade the Ladies over for a girls night at my apartment...

This is my work girls, who knows just about everything about me, and my life. Nothing that´s happened the last 5 yrs is beyond them!

Sometimes I think about people who work at places where they don´t know the people closest to them. How strange!

These crazy chics (and of course, the guys at my work too) are, truly, part of my extended family, and I appreciate them all!

However, having just girls over is really something else *lol*

All the fun stuff we discuss, and all the crazy subjects!

I tell ya, there´s nothing as fun as a night with Me Ladies (with a shoutout to Texas Susie!)

"All you single ladies, all you single ladies!"

Old fashion fun things...

One of the great benefits of moving closer to the city is that we´ve ended up very close to Ellen´s friends.

She has her birthday party coming up and, clearly there are V.I.P invitations to hand out.
Well, this morning she said: "mommy, why don´t we take my bike and pretend I´m the mailman and get the invitations out?"

With my tounge about to lick the first stamp, my first response was: "no, sweetie, we´ll just put it in the mail"

Then, I realized I had just turned down the perfect activity!

I quickly put the stamps down and said: "you know what? That was a great idea, let´s do it!"

Putting clothes on, and packing up the bike with the invitations we set off...

She was so proud putting the invitations in the mailboxes, and I congratulated her on a job well done. It took us 1½ hrs to hand out 3 invitations, and it was worth every damn minute!!

Roadtrip!

What is 2 girls suppose to do for easter?

Well, we got invited to go visit one of my best buddies Susanne and her twin girls Moa & Melina in Jönköping (south of Sweden, get your maps out!)

It was a blast! Riding in the car with Ellen is always fun, and especially when it´s just her and me..

So, we packed up the car with all things neccesary; portable DVD, candy (it´s easter after all!) lunch sandwiches, water and stuffed animals, carefully chosen for the trip.

With the cd player loaded with ABBA, and Mama Mia musical we set off!

Sun shining, sunglasses on and just the two if us! Beautiful!

Met up with the girls and had lunch and coffee. We took the oportunity to watch eachother´s kiddos so we could go for a run, awesome.

Later Knut & Staffan (friends of Susanne) showed up to fix us dinner, imagine that! (well, it ended up with too much Champagne and take away *LOL*)

So, a great weekend spent with a friend I don´t get to see as often as I would like to, and her cute kids. There´s nothing like a girls weekend!!

Doing great...

So... All in all me and kiddo are doing great.
We enjoy having close to the store and the fact that we´re not alone in the woods anymore...

I can´t wait for spring when we can get the bike out and actually enjoy the surroundings.

I love having neighbors around and I´m sure the are highly (or not) amused by the fact that I perform P90X every night in my livingroom. (that´s an excersise form, people)

I also tend to forget to put clothes on, while walking from one room to another. A habit I picked up when I lived in the country, with no neighbors to look into my home...
This can proof somewhat problematic IF I HAVE been spotted naked. It is, after all, a small town.

I secretly enjoy listening to noise from my upstairs neighbor, even though I hardly ever hear anything. I imagine things they´re doing, and it´s not always "pure thoughts".

It seems I´ve been "neighborley starved", and I can feel how comforting it is to be back in an apartment again. I was, after all, born and raised in one.

I can see before me how I spend some lazy summer afternoons at my balcony, reading books and drinking coffee, waving to some bypasser below me...

Also, packing a picnic basket and head to the playgorund with kiddo, and watching her playing with some other kids...

So, all in all, we´re doing great...

Ah, well...

So... after taking advice from Über-blogger, K-Swiss (my nick name for my awesome "SIL" in USA) I decided to try and awake my blog.

This past year has really ment a lot of change. A LOT!! Y´all know: divorce, the passing of my sweet friend Sara, and also my neighbor Sune.

I had to put my "firstborn", sweetest Lana, to sleep.
Sold the house, moved... Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!

You name it, I´ve lived it!

Still, sitting here tonight, I feel a sense of calmness, and a sense of strenght. I feel, for the first time in a loooooong time, happiness and joy.

Not that there´s anything new to report from the land where Iceage (1 & 2) apparently was filmed on location, but I just feel that I can REALLY start over now!

It might be the new year, or the fact that I´ll turn 40 (FORTY, ladies and gentlemen), but I don´t feel I have anything to hide or to be ashamed of.

I have the best kid in the whole Universe (yeah, and all of you too, I know *lol*), a great apartment, fun and caring co-workers and a family that´s coming together, slowly, for the first time since I can remember...

I truly am blessed!!